Sausalito school construction project ramps up for summer

The new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy campus is taking shape in Sausalito.

Workers planned to remove furniture and other items from eight classrooms and three offices this week in preparation for modernizing the buildings. The work is the latest chapter of the overall campus renovation, which includes the construction of a new elementary school, said Jason Cave, project manager for Greystone West Inc.

Cave said construction on the new school, which has been ongoing for the last 18 months, should be done by the end of the year.

“It’s looking good,” Cave said Tuesday. “We had some delays early on with PG&E, but now it’s going well. We’re still on track for late December.”

The project is being funded with proceeds from the $41.6 million Measure P bond approved by district voters in 2020.

On Monday, the Sausalito Marin City School District board approved a $28,588 contract with Chipman Relocation and Logistics of Hayward to remove the contents of the kindergarten wing and the multiuse building, which has four classrooms on the second floor. Chipman will store the items in trailers on the campus for about the next month and a half.

“This is required to provide construction crews with adequate access to the space to complete the work,” LaResha Huffman, the district superintendent, told trustees at the board meeting.

After the buildings are cleared, BHM Construction Inc. of Napa, the general contractors for the whole campus reconstruction project, will complete the modernization work by Aug. 4. At that point, Chipman will move all the furniture back into the buildings.

Once the elementary school is completed and students are able to occupy it, contractors will demolish two other buildings at the campus, Cave said. They are an administration building and another classroom building formerly occupied by Willow Creek Academy.

Willow Creek was closed several years ago and merged with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy after a historic state desegregation order in 2019.

Cave said the school district had not yet set a date for students to occupy the new school. It would likely be during the holiday break or the mid-winter or spring breaks, he said.

“That’s up to the district,” Cave said.

Huffman said she expects the new school will be ready for occupancy by about February.

The school on Nevada Street serves about 270 students in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. The district office is at the Marin City campus on Phillips Drive.